


Safe

by yachterotter



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort/Angst, Episode 6x23 AU, F/M, Family, Fix-It of Sorts, Post Season 6, Season 7 AU, What-If, i guess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 02:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15571425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yachterotter/pseuds/yachterotter
Summary: It was a stark contrast from their getaway three years ago. There were no sunsets to drive into. No relaxing beach houses. No adventurous hikes. No romantic walks under the stars. This time, it felt more like a mission.Or, what if Oliver got the chance to tell Felicity about the deal earlier and she convinced him to escape the FBI? (An episode 6.23 AU)





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hi, everyone! First off, I would like to thank everyone who commented and supported _Trying to Burn The Night Away._ I promise to get back to that work as soon as I get this idea off my system. 
> 
> After watching the trailer and reading the spoilers for the next season, I couldn’t help but wonder how things would have turned out if Oliver had the chance to tell Felicity about the deal earlier, thus, this monstrosity of a fic was born.
> 
> I have most of the chapters drafted out, so I should be able to update this consistently every Sunday.
> 
> No beta, so all mistakes are my own. Again, I would love to hear your feedback. Also, I am not from the US, so pardon my geographical inconsistencies. Enjoy!

It was a stark contrast from their getaway three years ago.

There were no sunsets to drive into. No relaxing beach houses. No adventurous hikes. No romantic walks under the stars.

This time, it felt more like a mission.

Felicity glanced at the driver’s seat. She found her husband’s eyes dead straight on the road, his knuckles white and visible as he gripped the steering wheel. He drove fast enough for them to leave city limits in less than an hour, but slow enough not to alert any speed cameras.

She, on the other hand, tightened her hold on her tablet. She had their tracker activated, displaying a bright green dot moving around the roads of Star City. Almost half an hour into their drive and she found comfort in the fact that they had not encountered any trouble along the way.

She took a quick look at the rear-view mirror to find her stepson, sitting quietly in the backseat, looking out the window.

As they passed by the road signs that bid them goodbye, she watched the twinkling lights of Star City fade into the night.

 

* * *

 

Felicity couldn’t believe her ears when she heard it.

“You did _what?_ ” She bellowed almost loud enough for the entire precinct to hear.

They stood in the confines of one of the precinct’s interrogation rooms, face to face, away from the bustle of FBI agents that have been surrounding them over the last few hours.

She had been glad that they have been granted a moment of privacy before they went out to face Diaz once more.

When Oliver told her that he had a plan, this was definitely not what she had in mind.

Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time her husband decided to be a self-sacrificing idiot.

“We were running out of options, Felicity,” he defended in a low voice, a contrast to her rage. “This was the only way we could take our city back from Diaz.”

She felt the blood rush to her head, because… _really?_ Diaz was hardly one of toughest people they’ve came across with. Sure, he had connections everywhere, but so did everyone else who tried to take over the city and hurt Oliver and the team.

“I don’t know what has gotten into that thick skull of yours, Oliver,” at this point, she had been practically screaming, not caring if the entire city heard her, “but I refuse to accept that this is the only way. There are a million other ways!”

Her husband took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his fingers rubbing each other in a circular motion.

“I had to give myself up for the team. If I don’t get arrested, all of you would. Including you. I figured William should have at least one parent with him.”

She noticed his voice getting weaker at the minute, his defense breaking down. God help her, she loves her husband with everything in her, but at this stage, that love isn’t enough to dampen the frustrations she felt towards him.

She had just about a million things to scream to him about. One, why hadn’t he told her about this before making a decision? Had they not just worked through this issue the past year? Two, has everything she did over the last six years not enough to make him feel important? Three, had she just not stressed the importance of working together as partners enough that he kept feeling the need to work and face everything alone?

She closed their distance and grappled his arms.

“At what cost?” She challenged him, hoping to get through to him. “When are you ever going to learn that sacrificing yourself is never the answer? Need I remind you, William just lost his mother, and he is waiting for you to return to him like you promised.”

She blinked back her tears, threatening to fall.

“What about me? Your wife?” She croaked, “I almost lost you more times than I could ever handle. I don’t know how I’m going to live through losing you again.”

“I just wanted to protect you and William. He was going to hurt the both of you,” he breathed, as she felt his strong arms wrapped around her body. “What are we going to do, Felicity?”

Her husband’s voice was almost helpless now, and she knew she needed to be his strength.

They were going to fight.

“We’re going to find another way.”

 

* * *

 

They didn’t have time to convene with the team until later that night. Everything happened in a blur and before she knew it, she found herself staring at the pristine white walls of Starling General, sitting on one of those chairs that provided false comfort.

This was a scenario that she has reluctantly gotten too familiar with in the last six years.

“There something you all need to know.”

Six heads - including hers - turned to the source of the voice that broke the silence that hung between them. Her husband, eyes showing signs of exhaustion, stood to be recognized.

His baby blues found hers and she knew he was seeking for her approval.

She gave him a quick nod to proceed.

“The reason the FBI decided to help us take down Diaz was because I struck a deal with them. My freedom for the team’s immunity,” Oliver admitted sternly. “Felicity encouraged me to let you know about this.”

She knew that this conversation was not appropriate for the setting. They were hardy anywhere private, Quentin was fighting for his life on the other side of the doors. Time was not on their side, though, and the feds can show up any minute to take her husband away.

“Felicity’s right, as always.”

It was John who spoke up first, breaking the silence, sending a glance at her direction.

“Not complying with this deal would mean all of you are at risk of being arrested,” her husband continued somberly.

“Well, we can’t let you take the fall for us. We all made our choices,” Dinah interjected with conviction. “Plus, they can’t arrest you. You were acquitted.”

It was Rene who stood up from his seat next.

“It’s not like we haven’t prepared for anything like this, hoss. We can handle ourselves.”

“What are we going to do?” It was Curtis who addressed the obvious.

“Felicity suggested we get away from the city for now. At least until we can figure out a way to get out of the deal I made.”

She eyed the room to see how they would react. She knew that the others wouldn’t necessarily agree to this plan, running away has never been an option.

This time, however, it was a necessity that they all had to do to avoid being locked up behind bars.

“Lyla and I can help out with all the resources that you are going to need. All of you,” John encouraged. “My working with ARGUS will help me get out of the FBI’s list, but I can’t say the same for the rest of you.”

“What’s going on?”

It was Sara’s voice that broke the tension.

Sara Lance had just arrived from the Waverider and had Not-Laurel tailing her. Perfect timing.

Just then, Dr Schwartz came out of the operating room.

“How’s Quentin?” Oliver asked in a low voice.

Dr Schwartz lowered her head.

 

* * *

 

“We’ll be reaching Weskan in less than an hour. There’s a small inn off the road. No one would ask any questions if we pay cash. Their security network, or lack of it, will be easy enough to hack. It will be as if we were never there.”

Night time came too soon as they drove through different states. They’ve been driving non-stop for almost an entire day now, feeding themselves with drive thru take outs and microwaved meals from gas station convenience stores.

The initial goal was to get as far away from Star City as possible. While leaving the country would be a far more effective option, they wouldn’t put it past Watson to flag them at all possible exits from the country.

She wasn’t sure how far the news of Oliver being suspected as the Green Arrow went. She knew it was big enough for the local to pick up, but she was sure that most people in other states don’t really care much for it. It’s sometimes easy to forget that the world extended far beyond the city limits of Star City when you’re wrapped up in all its problems. The moment they got out of it, it’s almost fascinating to see how distant their problems seem to be.

They have John and Lyla to thank for making all of this possible. With haste, the Diggles had arranged for all the supplies they were going to need: a spacious SUV with different sets of untraceable plates, a number of IDs with fake names they could use, and a few weapons hidden in the trunk should they encounter anyone.

“We’re doing this as family, not as ARGUS,” Lyla had told them as she pulled Felicity in for an embrace while she bid them goodbye.

John had done the same with both of them and promised that he would keep in touch as much as he can.

It had been twenty hours since then, and she hasn’t heard from John, Lyla, or from anyone in the team.

She noticed that Oliver had not gotten back to her yet, so she reached her hand out on the gear stick, placing it on top of her husband’s tense hands.

“Hey,” her voice soft, “We’ve been driving for twenty hours straight. No one has been tailing us since we left. We all need to get some rest.”

He met her eyes briefly as she gestured to the back seat where William lay asleep, his body curled into the cramped space.

They tried to make William feel as comfortable as possible throughout the drive.

They bought all the snacks he wanted so he never goes hungry. In an attempt to keep him distracted, Felicity installed some of his video games on his phone and tablet.

She even bought him a back up power pack in case he runs of battery.

It seemed to work fine as he spent the day sitting quietly in the backseat.

“Tell me where.”

Her husband responded in a raspy voice. She knew that part of it was due to disuse, as he was silent for most of the drive.

A part of it was because of grief. They hadn’t had time to mourn him properly.

When Dr Schwartz broke the news of Quentin’s passing, the only thing she could remember was the strong need to wrap someone in a tight hug.

As if the night couldn’t get any worse, they had been reminded of the fact that they had to leave as soon as possible. Watson and her team can take Oliver away in the next minute.

In record time, they got to William, got to the apartment and took all the necessities they were going to need.

It had been them and the road since then.

Before she knew it, the twinkling lights of a small town come into view, and they were passing by a sign welcoming them to Kansas. It was an aggressive reminder that they were far away from home.

“There should be an inn if you turn right on that road.”

 

* * *

 

She found him sitting in solitude, on the edge of the hardwood floor just outside the room. He was staring into the dark, empty desert.

Stepping out of the room, she was greeted by the rhythmic sounds of the crickets and the howls of the wolves that filled the cold air of the night.

She resisted letting the serene silence lull her into a false sense of peace.

It was an hour past midnight and she knew that he was having trouble sleeping despite the exhausting day they just had.

After all, she felt the same way.

They rented a room with two queen size beds at a place called Burt’s Inn in the very small town of Weskan. Felicity was right, the owners didn’t bother to ask the whos, whys, whats and wheres as long as you paid in cash.

William went straight for one of the beds and almost instantly fell back to sleep as soon as they entered the bedroom.

“You should get some rest.”

Her voice was soft, filled with concern.

“It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to. We lost Quentin. Now my wife and my son are fugitives running from the law.”

His voice was laced with bitterness as continued to stare into the night.

She sat on the empty space beside him, tablet in hand. She kept it with her at all times, the paranoia of someone following them ever-present.

“At least we got the city back from Diaz. Well, they got the city back. I mean, we can’t even step foot there now.”

“I know. It’s all because of me. I’m sorry you had to be stuck with this life,” he continued somberly, directed at her.

She ran her hands through his shoulders, his back, and his arms. On a regular stressful night, after a long night in the streets or in the office, as they sat on the couch or lay in bed, this was her to go-to gesture to comfort him. It was her way of reminding him that she’s there, he can always lean on her, and that he’ll always have her.

As she caressed her shoulder that night, she felt a heavier weight on his muscles. She wished nothing more than for him to let her carry some of that load.

“Well, how would you have wanted this to go?” She refuted, her voice almost echoing through the quiet of the night. Not wanting to draw any attention, she quietly added, “Would you rather be locked up in prison and have William and I shipped off to some protective custody?”

Honestly, she was seriously considering calling Cisco to find an alternate universe where that exact scenario happened just so he could see how miserable they would end up without him.

“You may have made the wrong call giving yourself up to the FBI, Oliver, but don’t you think, for one second, that I would chose to abandon you over this,” she pointed out.

She brought her hand to his jaw and stroked her thumb through his scruff.

His eyes stared directly into hers.

“We are a family, Oliver. Remember what I told you at the courthouse, the other day? We fight for each other. This is me fighting for you.”

And she meant it.

 

* * *

 

Exhaustion finally won over them a little over two in the morning that night. After spending the rest of the night talking and planning their next course of action, she managed to convince him to get back to bed.

She fell asleep in the arms of her husband, felt his breathing even out as the little puffs of air touched the scalp of her hair.

It was a miracle that he went into deep sleep that night, considering the danger that loomed over their heads.

Soon enough, morning broke.

She awoke before him, an occurrence rare enough in the last six years, she could count them with her two hands and specify each one.

When her phone buzzed with John’s face on the screen, she almost bolted out of the room so as to not disturb her husband. She wasn’t going to deprive him of getting that much needed rest.

He woke up about an hour after that.

“John called a few hours ago. He said that Watson came looking for you after we left,” Felicity updated.

They were sitting on a small plastic dining set the room had to offer.

Not being able to function without her coffee, Felicity decided to go out and find someplace where she could find them some decent food.

She found a diner nearby and bought coffee, toast, waffles, omelettes, and bacon to-go. She ordered pretty much all the breakfast comfort food they had on the menu.

Thank google, their coffee was palatable or else she would not survive this day.

As she got back, William immediately called shots on the waffles and the bacon as he ate quietly on the bed and continued to play on his phone.

Their son had been mostly quiet since they left Star City. He mostly kept to himself, mostly on his phone or on his tablet. They kept him mostly on the loop with the basics, though. They let him know that they were running away from the people who wanted to take his father away and that they had to be as quick and silent as possible. He would respond with short affirming statements, but he never asked for reasons.

Felicity was getting worried. She had been sure that Oliver was, too.

“John told Watson that he had no idea where we went. He hasn’t heard from the FBI since. I haven’t picked up anything from their radar. No searches, no reports, nothing. Who knows what she’s going to do next?”

Felicity had been relieved that Watson hadn’t called out a search for them, yet. This bought them more time to figure out where to go next. She had programmed her systems to alert her of any mention of their names on the FBI radio signals.

“He told me that the rest of the team also fled and have scattered around the country. Curtis took off with his boyfriend. Rene and Zoe did the same. He didn’t tell me where they were going.”

She watched her husband take the information in as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. She knew what was going through his mind, something along the lines of, ‘they wouldn’t be fleeing if it weren’t for me.’

Despite all the assurances the team gave him to which they owned up to the choices they made themselves, she knew he was fighting an internal battle, his subconscious wanting to take all the blame.

He chose to remain silent, though, and she took it as a gesture to continue.

“Dinah chose to stay in Star City. He told me that she is confident the feds won’t be able to touch her. What with the SCPD needing all the manpower they could use at this point.”

He nodded and she could see his conscious effort winning, the acceptance in his eyes evident - that every one of them is capable of keeping themselves safe.

After all, they needed to focus on keeping themselves safe.

“We should leave before noon. We need to find a place where we could stay in for a while,” Oliver declared, getting back to the urgent matter at hand.

She had a few places in mind.

“The FBI could use facial recognition software to locate you. While I figure out a way to hack into that and modify their searches, we have to avoid any big cities and stick to small towns like these.”

“The risk of us staying in a small town is that strangers and outsiders are easier to remember. I wouldn’t put it past them to have contacts everywhere. We have to find a way to be unrecognizable.”

“What about William?” Felicity asked softly, her eyes moving towards their pre-teen, playing quietly in the corner.

She kept her voice as low as she could, knowing that her step son could be eavesdropping on their conversation.

“I don’t think they’ll be keeping a record of a thirteen-year old in any of their databases, so as long as we keep ourselves in the down low, he’ll be fine,” he replied in an equally voice.

“I meant, have you really talked to him about this?”

They both knew what they meant. William’s silence since they drove away hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“We’ll have more time for that later,” Oliver decided. “For now, we need to focus on going about unrecognized.”

 

* * *

 

“I got us… wigs!”

Not wanting to risk being recognized, Felicity decided to drop by the nearest store in town to pick up some supplies they could use to conceal their identities: hair dye, wigs, contacts, shaving cream.

“I talked up the lady at the counter and told her that I had a friend who was super into drag. Also, I may have also modified their security footage and deleted every trace of me ever setting foot there.”

“Can I try this on?”

She was surprised to hear William join in, jumping to their bed, as he donned a brunette wig she specifically bought for Oliver.

He fashioned a smile as he asked her, “How do I look?”

At that, she found herself laughing.

“As handsome as you look in almost anything, buddy, I think I prefer your current hair.”

She took the wig off of his head and handed it to Oliver.

“This is for your dad.”

“I bought myself some hair dye. This should turn my hair into its natural brunette color. Mind you, I haven’t gone brunette in years, so I don’t know how it’ll going to look on me. Promise me you’re still going to love me even if I change my look.”

She may have added that as a joke, but Oliver seemed to have taken it seriously.

“You’re going to look beautiful to me no matter how you look like,” he replied so gingerly. God, he almost made her forget where they were.

“Well, we need to find a way to make you not look like Oliver Queen. Which is going to be hard because, damn, how are we going to conceal those beautiful cheekbones?”

She ran her thumbs across his cheeks, feeling his beard growing out.

“I can grow my beard. I mean, I was basically unrecognizable when Waller recruited me back then,” he suggested, lightly scratching his five o’clock shadow.

“This wig should make you look like your old self. Your old Hong Kong and Russia self. And this--” she took out a pair of brown contacts from the bag, “--God, I’m going hate myself for suggesting this-- this will hide your beautiful eyes.”

“We’re going to need names and backstories,” she reminded, almost forgetting the most crucial piece.

“Lyla provided us some documents that we need, but we need to take care of the photos,” he started, pulling out a bunch of folders from John and Lyla.

“I should be able to take care of that with a few supplies,” Felicity assured him.

She found her husband nodding along as he brought out her tablet, pulling up a map.

“I mapped out the places that we can go to next. Since we’re going midwest, we can head up to the mountains in Missouri and find a cabin.”

“A cabin sounds good. It’s far enough from civilization and it should provide us enough solitude to think of our next step.”

“What do you say, bud,” Oliver turned to William, “You up for a little family vacation in the woods?”

 

* * *

 

It was a little after noon when they finished getting ready.

Oliver was sporting a slightly darker and longer hair than usual, hiding his now chocolate brown eyes behind a pair of sunglasses. Felicity dyed her hair into a dark brown shade, ditched her glasses for a pair of green contacts, and went without her usual ponytail. They kept William as he was, though, not wanting to put too much stress on him.

They left the keys on the front desk with haste.

The lady didn’t even take her eyes off the crossword puzzle.

She had been glad that this place lacked much technology. Thank google for small town inns.

As they loaded the car, Felicity pulled up the map she had on her tablet and showed him what she found: a small cabin in the middle of the Ozark mountains that they could rent.

“We should be able to stay there for a month,” she imparted, pulling up the ad she found online.

“Good.”

It was back to the highway for them. Felicity kept her tablet on her lap this time around, feeling less tense as she did a day ago.

She decided they should make a family trip out of it.

“Let’s play a game!” She suggested almost excitedly. She never had any experience going on family vacations herself, but she watched enough family movies with her mom that she know how they should go.

“I know one!” William chimed from the back seat.

Just as she was going to ask him to tell them more about his idea, a loud beeping sound emanated from Felicity’s tablet.

“Oliver…”

Her voice shook as the alert popped up on her screen.

“We have a problem.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
